Apparatus and method for processing description information of multimedia data

• US 20020007368A1
• Filed: 07/12/2001
• Published: 01/17/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 07/14/2000
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: LG Electronics, Inc. (LG Corporation)
• Original Assignee: LG Electronics, Inc. (LG Corporation)
• Inventors: Lee, Jin Soo, Yoon, Kyoung Ro, Song, Jung Min
• Application Number:
  US09/902,664
• Publication Number:
  US 20020007368A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/500.1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/435 Filtering based on additional data, e.g. user or group profiles
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/48 Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/25891 being end-user preferences retrieval of video data in a video database based on user preferences G06F16/739; arrangements for recognizing users' preferences H04H60/46; user profiles in network data switching protocols H04L67/306; processing of user preferences or user profiles in wireless networks H04W8/18
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44222 Analytics of user selections, e.g. selection of programs or purchase activity monitoring of user selections in data processing systems G06F11/34; arrangements for monitoring the user's behaviour or opinions in broadcast systems H04H60/33
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/466 Learning process for intelligent management, e.g. learning user preferences for recommending movies services using the results of monitoring in broadcast systems H04H60/61
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4667 Processing of monitored end-user data, e.g. trend analysis based on the log file of viewer selections
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6582 Data stored in the client, e.g. viewing habits, hardware capabilities, credit card number arrangements where receivers interact with the broadcast H04H20/38
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8352 involving content or source identification data, e.g. Unique Material Identifier [UMID]
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/84 Generation or processing of descriptive data, e.g. content descriptors systems specially adapted for using meta-information in broadcast systems H04H60/73
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17309 Transmission or handling of upstream communications

Abstract

In an apparatus and a method for processing description information of multimedia data, in order to reflect a user'"'"'s preference about multimedia data, a usage history of a user is made by adding description information to the multimedia data, in order to manage the usage history efficiently the apparatus includes a server adding description information to the multimedia, and a terminal transmitting/receiving multimedia data to/from the server, storing a user'"'"'s usage history about the multimedia data, grasping a preference of a user with the stored usage history and providing the preference of the user to the server, accordingly multimedia sequences can be efficiently managed with the usage history of the user, a restrictive memory unit can be efficiently used, and grouping of lots of multimedia data can be easily performed by displaying all commonly applicable data as the same result by using common information or application group information without retrieving characteristic information.

Claims

1. An apparatus for processing description information of multimedia data, comprising:

a server 100 adding description information to multimedia; and

a terminal 200 transmitting/receiving multimedia data to/from the server 100, storing a user'"'"'s usage history about the multimedia data, grasping a preference of a user with the stored usage history and providing the preference of the user to the server 100.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the server 100 further includes a description information descriptor 110 adding description information to the multimedia data.

3. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the description information descriptor 110 classifies the description information added to the multimedia data into common characteristic information 300 commonly applicable to the multimedia data and inherent characteristic information 400 inherently applicable to the multimedia data, and the common characteristic information 300 and the inherent characteristic information 400 including subordinate characteristic information, respectively.

4. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the description information descriptor 110 classifies the description information into common characteristic information 300 commonly applicable to the multimedia data and inherent characteristic information 400 inherently applicable to the multimedia data, a program ID 500 for distinguishing multimedia data having the same common characteristic information 300 from multimedia data having different common characteristic information and an inherent ID (Identification) 600 for identifying each of the multimedia data, and adds them to the multimedia data.

5. The apparatus of claim 4, wherein the common characteristic information includes not less than one of genre information, director information, leading actor and actress information and title information.

6. The apparatus of claim 4, wherein the inherent characteristic information includes not less than one item of a plot, an episode sequence in a series, a running time of multimedia data.

7. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the description information descriptor 110 classifies description information into characteristic information, a program ID (Identification) 500 for distinguishing multimedia data having the same common characteristic information from multimedia data having different common characteristic information, and an inherent ID 600 for classifying each of the multimedia data.

8. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the characteristic information includes type information 350 for classifying itself into common characteristic information 300 or inherent characteristic information 400.

9. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the description information descriptor 110 classifies the description information into characteristic information, a program ID 500 for distinguishing multimedia data having the same common characteristic information 300 from multimedia data having different common characteristic information, an inherent ID for identifying each of the multimedia data and episode sequence information, and adds them to the multimedia data.

10. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the characteristic information includes application group information 900 indicating applicable to other multimedia data having the same program ID.

11. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the application group information 900 includes first episode information 910 and last episode information 920 in order to describe a range in which each of the characteristic information can be commonly applied to the multimedia data having the same program ID.

12. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the description information descriptor 110 adds an inherent ID 600 to the multimedia data in order to identify each of the characteristic information and each of the multimedia data.

13. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein each of the characteristic information further includes application group information 900 indicating applicable to other multimedia data having the same program ID.

14. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the application group information 900 includes an application ID 930 in order to identify each characteristic information commonly applied to the multimedia data.

15. The apparatus of claim 1, comprising:

a display unit 220 displaying multimedia transmitted from the server 100;

a data analyzing unit 230 classifying the transmitted multimedia data and comparing program IDs of the multimedia data;

a memory unit 240 storing a user'"'"'s usage history about the multimedia data; and

an I/O (Input/Output) interface unit 210 transmitting a user'"'"'s preference to the server 100.

16. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the data analyzing unit classifies the multimedia data transmitted from the server 100 into a common list and an inherent list.

17. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the common list is stored in the memory unit 240.

18. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the common list includes link information linking the common list itself to the inherent list.

19. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the common list is stored in an additional memory unit.

20. The apparatus of claim 19, wherein the common list includes link information linking the common list stored in the additional memory unit to the inherent list.

21. A method for processing description information of multimedia data, comprising:

classifying description information into common characteristic information 300 commonly applicable to multimedia data and inherent characteristic information 400 inherently applicable to the multimedia data when the multimedia data is transmitted from a server to a terminal;

constructing a hierarchical information description format by adding each characteristic information of the multimedia data to a subordinate of the common characteristic information 300 and the inherent characteristic information 400, respectively; and

adding the hierarchical information description format to the multimedia data.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein the hierarchical information description format adding process further includes the step of:

adding a program ID 500 for distinguishing multimedia data having the same common characteristic information from multimedia data having different common characteristic information to the multimedia data.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein the program ID adding step further includes the sub-step of:

adding an inherent ID 600 for identifying each of the multimedia to the multimedia data.

24. A method for processing description information of multimedia data, comprising:

comparing a program ID 500 of displayed multimedia data with a program ID stored in a memory unit when the multimedia data is displayed on a terminal;

storing an inherent list in the memory unit when the program ID 500 is the same as the program ID stored in the memory unit; and

storing a common list and the inherent list in the memory unit when the program ID 500 is not the same as the program ID stored in the memory unit.

25. The method of claim 24, wherein the comparing process further includes the step of:

adding link information for linking to the common list to the inherent list and comparing link information of the common list with the link information of the inherent list.

26. A method for processing description information of multimedia data, comprising:

comparing a program ID 500 of displayed multimedia data with a program ID stored in an additional memory unit when the multimedia data is displayed on a terminal;

storing an inherent list in a memory unit when the program ID 500 is the same as the stored program ID; and

storing the inherent list in the memory unit and the common list in the additional memory unit when the program ID 500 is not the same as the stored program ID.

27. The method of claim 26, wherein the comparing process further includes the step of:

adding link information of the additional memory unit to the inherent list and comparing the common list with the inherent list.